You had to be there to grasp the scale of Margaret Thatcher's revolution

[Incognito]

Industry suffered due to the fluctuation of the pound due to the increased North Sea oil revenue. Couple that with the VAT increases and suffocation from the unions and that's why jobs were shed. Thatcher had to deal with 22 % inflation. She did. By creating an economic slump to kill inflation. A necessary measure brought about by the need to rectify the mess that the previous Labour administration had caused. Sound familiar?

The whole psyche of the Unions were to blame for the malaise in British industry. The employer was always wrong, getting rich from the little mans efforts. My dad told me of a case where British Leyland couldn't sack a guy who was working nightshift with a mattress in his office.

The unions did far more damage than Thatcher could ever have imagined doing, and incompetent management and the inability to compete on the world stage is what destroyed British industry.

[expat]

So if the free market is so "utterly discredited" are you going to give all the ill gotten gains that you have hypocritically and selfishly acquired back to the state?

What I find interesting is the number of people who have benefitted from her reforms (anyone remember the 1998 deregulation of the electricity markets that poured so much money into the pockets of so many contractors?) that seem to despise her so much. I can understand if you were a miner or a printer but you are not. You are a fat idle rich contractor who has enjoyed unimaginable wealth.

I can't think of anything that I have gained from Thatcher (though that's not why I dislike her).

BTW it was 1988, no? It would have been quite a feat even for Maggie to deregulate a market 6 years after being PM.

[DodgyAgent]

That's about right; in fact it's my biggest objection to the lefties. If all the lefties voluntarily hand half their income to the poor folks there won't be any poverty left (or maybe there won't be any lefties left). The rest of us can get on with generating the wealth that pays their salaries.

I think you will find that middle class lefties hate poor people, and they hate giving money away. They are quite happy to vote for a party that keeps the poor in their place (on welfare) and out of their childrens schools. It makes them feel good about themselves. The reason they hate thatcher is because she represents all the things they are trying to hide about themselves.

It is a bit like old Bono who runs around telling leaders of countries and large banks to wipe out the debt of third world countries, yet he himself has probably got enough wealth to wipe out the whole of Africas debt on his own.

[AtW]

Deregulation of electricity and gas markets is a complete failure in UK - granted it could be due to NL.

[DodgyAgent]

I can't think of anything that I have gained from Thatcher (though that's not why I dislike her).

BTW it was 1988, no? It would have been quite a feat even for Maggie to deregulate a market 6 years after being PM.

It was 1998 but it was she who began the denationalisation of the power and utility industries in the Uk and took the control away from the miners.

[DodgyAgent]

Deregulation of electricity and gas markets is a complete failure in UK - granted it could be due to NL.

So what would have been the alternative? a well run state controlled market?

[DodgyAgent]

Industry suffered due to the fluctuation of the pound due to the increased North Sea oil revenue. Couple that with the VAT increases and suffocation from the unions and that's why jobs were shed. Thatcher had to deal with 22 % inflation. She did. By creating an economic slump to kill inflation. A necessary measure brought about by the need to rectify the mess that the previous Labour administration had caused. Sound familiar?

The whole psyche of the Unions were to blame for the malaise in British industry. The employer was always wrong, getting rich from the little mans efforts. My dad told me of a case where British Leyland couldn't sack a guy who was working nightshift with a mattress in his office.

The unions did far more damage than Thatcher could ever have imagined doing, and incompetent management and the inability to compete on the world stage is what destroyed British industry.

The mistake that she made was by not borrowing and investing in infrastructure projects at the same time. (whether the IMF would let her is another matter) The ground zero approach was probably the only way to deal with the Unions, but she should have invested if she could have.

[AtW]

So what would have been the alternative? a well run state controlled market?

It is already state controlled - by external suppliers, thanks to UK not investing enough into its own gas exploration (I blame NL tax policies here) AND coal mines industry destroyed - add to this nuclear power stations will now be build by foreign powers.

Thatcher did a few right things but in the process she screwed up this country.

[Incognito]

the fact is that Thatcher was rejected for all the right reasons by the UK public

Do your research properly. Thatcher never lost an election.

CDS and Derivatives were never an NL creation - if you want to blame a goverment then it was the Democrats in the US under Clinton who 'de-regulated' the financial market a few years ago that led to this.

Much of the regulation they swept aside was there to prevent a 30s type recession.

I didn't mention CDS or Derivatives. It's about regulation of our banking system and failing to rein in the irresponsible lending.

[Alf W]

If Thatcher was so great how come she left the country in recession, mass protest and riots and an economy that no longer 'made' anything?

This middle class lefty has the champagne on ice for when the evil old bat dies.

A balancing view below.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17741